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Dawn of the Dead (1978)
| running time = 126 min. | country = USA | language = English | budget = $650,000 | gross revenue = $55,000,000 | preceded by = Night of the Living Dead (1968) | followed by = Day of the Dead (1985) }} Dawn of the Dead is an American horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. It is the second film in Romero's "Dead" franchise and follows his seminal 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead. It was succeeded in 1985 by Day of the Dead. The movie was made on a paltry budget of $650,000 and grossed $55,000,000 in box office receipts worldwide. It made $900,000 on it's opening weekend with a limited theatrical release of only sixty-eight screens. The film was remade in 2004 by Zack Snyder. Like it's predecessor, the film takes place in Pennsylvania and involves a group of zombie survivors who hole up inside of a Philadelphia shopping mall. The film is largely noted for its subtext regarding American consumerism. Plot A television station runs amok with emergency news reports. Society is quickly descending into chaos as hundreds upon hundreds of the walking dead slowly take over the Earth. The President has forbidden citizens to live in private residences and special rescue centers have been set up to contain the surviving populace. Station producers Stephen Andrews and Francine Parker decide to hijack a helicopter and escape the demilitarized zone. Meanwhile across town, a SWAT team raids an apartment complex containing illegal residents. One of the field leaders, Wooley goes completely berserk and begins shooting innocent people as they emerge from their rooms. Roger DeMarco tries to control him with little success. Finally, marksman Peter Washington steps onto the scene and blasts a hole through Wooley's back. Washington and DeMarco go down into the lower basements. They discover that the citizens of the apartment have been corralling the zombies so that the local priest can administer the last rites. Soon after, they find Stephen and Francine ready to escape from the city. Roger is part of the escape effort and he invites Peter to go with them. They take off from the city and head towards Pittsburgh. The helicopter gets about as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania when they have to touch down to refuel. Zombies are wandering all over town and the local residents are taking great pleasure in blowing them apart with their buckshot rifles. Leaving Harrisburg, the group reaches a mall in Pittsburgh. They touch down on the roof and head into the loading docks of the mall. The entire mall is infested with zombies and the group has to take extreme measures to provide themselves with a secure haven. Francine stays behind to cover the warehouse while Stephen, Peter and Roger try to clean the mall free of zombies. After several hours of punching kicking and shooting, they manage to squeeze the rest of the zombies outside. The mall is theirs. Making it their official home, the group takes advantage of every perk available to them. They sleep on beds from the mattress store, drink wine from the restaurants and they even steal equipment from the sporting goods store. As the group begins to bond, it is revealed that Francine is pregnant with Steve's baby. Roger and Peter decide to take some of the moving trucks and use them to block the other entrances to the mall so that the zombies are adequately sealed off. As they execute the operation, Roger is bitten on the leg. He hops into Peter’s van and they take him back inside. Normally, such a wound wouldn’t really be a problem, but if one is bitten by a zombie then they risk becoming a zombie themselves. Roger's wound eventually becomes infected and he turns into one of the living dead. Peter is left with little choice but to shoot him in the head. Only complete destruction of the brain can stop these monsters. The following day, a large motorcycle gang known as the Raiders comes upon the mall and invades it. Breaking through the windows, they mow down a score of zombies with their cycles. Peter ducks and weaves and jumps around corners avoiding gunfire. Stephen however, gets a little too possessive about the mall and begins opening fire on the bikers. Peter tries to get him to return to base camp but Stephen isn't having it. A group of zombies huddle up on Steve. He tries to escape but they capture him in the elevator shaft. Peter returns to the room where Francine is and the two collect their things. He knows that the zombies will eventually wade through the bikers and that they will get past their defenses. Steve is now a zombie and shambles down the hall. Peter shoots him in the head and orders Francine to go up the steps to the helicopter pad. He will hold them off. Francine closes the door behind her, leaving Peter with the zombies. He puts his gun to the side of his head ready to take his own life, but at the last minute decides that he would rather fight than die. He shoots past the last horde of flesh eaters and escapes on the helicopter. Cast Notes & Trivia * Principal shooting on Dawn of the Dead began on September 30th, 1977 and concluded on March 8th, 1978. * The shopping mall featured in this film was actually the Monroeville Mall, located at 200 Monroeville Mall, Route 22 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Romero chose to film his movie in a mall due to a throwaway remark made by a colleague of his named Carnegie Mellon, who suggested that someone would be able to survive in the mall should an emergency ever occur. Monroe Mall at The Zombie Farm * In the "The Exterminator" episode of iZombie, the character of Ravi Chakrabarti makes reference to the film Dawn of the Dead. * Episodes 2x05 of Scream: The Series is titled "Dawn of the Dead" after this film. * A poster for Dawn of the Dead can be seen in Buzz Hunkle's office in the "Werewolf of Hollywood" episode of Monsters. See also External Links * * References ---- Category:1978 films Category:2nd installments Category:Laurel Group Category:United Film Distribution Company Category:Night of the Living Dead films Category:Ken Foree